a houseful

5 kids in the house this morning. I'm surprised at how peacefully they're playing. BTG enjoys sharing Barbies with her little cousin. CTM and K2 are happy enough to give Baby Gack a car or two from their collection when he fusses. Mostly Baby Gack is happy playing with the chair rungs.

It's been one whole year since we landed back on Canadian soil with piles
of luggage and a cat in tow.

Happy anniversary to us.

I get to co-present tonight on one of the major aspects of the homeschooling philosophy we have chosen. It should be a good meeting. It's always inspiring to be among this group of homeschoolers--their ideals and goals so match my own and we're all working towards training our children to be their best. And in the process we're loving our families and becoming better people ourselves.

The great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of knowledge, every subject of thought; and to give deliberate care to the formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome of vitalising ideas.
— Charlotte Mason

we're back!

After 2 whole months without an internet connection to our house we are happy to be back online. I did check email occasionally through our friendly local library even taking the laptop in on a few occasions. But life just meandered on without the everpresent "connection" to the rest of the wide world. Are we perhaps being led to believe something erroneous about "connections" and dependance on machines for friendships......?

Enough social comments for the day.

During these last two months our house has moved from an empty, grimy quasi-abandonned schoolhouse to a full (too full--gotta get rid of stuff), clean, not always tidy but very well lived in home in a converted schoolhouse that is being adapted to our needs. The roof is partially re-roofed. Thank God for the roofing neighbour who is able to provide a day with 4 guys "some down day in the next couple of weeks" to finish it off. With that taken care of Simon has been able to concentrate on building the bedrooms. And when Jay phoned to say he needed his trailer back Simon quickly ordered some materials for building the 2-storey shed to store some of that "stuff" that doesn't fit in the basement. Two-storey so that the kids can have a play area amidst the boxes.

We have painted, organized, unboxed, taken a few deep breaths, lots of coffee and naps, and started again. Our mantra: "in five years...."

Dead truck.

Floor sander in back.

Floor sander in dead truck at mechanic's.

Mechanic's closed till tomorrow.

Rental place phoning.

Rental place phoning looking for floor sander in dead truck at mechanic's closed until tomorrow.

Friend calls.

Waiting for friend to help with floor sander in dead truck at mechanic's closed until tomorrow to satisfy rental place.

Thanks Friend.

First S'more of the Season

We got our house today!

We picked up our key with no problem. I even got everyone's camp gear in order this morning and loaded half the trailer with boxes. I ordered pizza and loaded up the cleaning stuff and headed out to the schoolhouse to help Simon who had already started sanding the basement floor.

So it turns out that there is no water. It's a well and it's not primed or something.

We start sweeping.

Suddenly: "K2 needs Mom, quickly!"

I find him heading for the toilet--no water remember?

"I think I'm going to throw up."

Let's go outside. OK, the sink is close. Phew! made it. But there's still no water and now we have a sick kid. He's happy enough curled up in one of the lawn chairs with a t-shirt for a blanket. An hour later and now the chair needs washing as does the blanket-shirt and the kid himself. I finally start for home after one more episode near the car. He sleeps the whole way. In time he settles down.....'nuff said.

As I start to change my clothes and clean up the bathroom, HBear drives up with the other two kids. She has stepped on a nail while cleaning. In her flip-flops. It seems to be a clean nail and a clean wound but she doesn't know her last tetanus. Off to emerg. she goes with her book and snacks. It's past 9pm by now.

Simon is still sanding as far as I know.

Tomorrow we go at it again.